Aircraft, and in particular the interior fittings of aircraft, are sometimes designed to be very individual. For example, aircraft are fitted with special aircraft seats, entertainment systems, shower cubicles or the like. For this purpose, some of the interior fittings of the aircraft are newly designed and produced from scratch.
In this case, both the high requirements in terms of quality, aesthetics and functionality and the high aeronautical requirements in terms of stability and safety need to be met at all times. These requirements are high primarily in the case of VIP aircraft, which are not fitted for normal scheduled air services, but are available to presidents or heads of government, for example.
In these aircraft, the visible surfaces of interior fitting components are often designed to have special wooden veneers. DE 198 59 195 C2 also discloses backlighting such decorative layers which are designed as wooden veneers. For this purpose, an electroluminescent film is provided as a luminous layer and is installed directly under the veneer. The patent specification further discloses that the decorative layer could theoretically also be made of stone.
It has, however, become clear that electroluminescent films for backlighting stone layers do not allow bright enough backlighting. The overall visual impression of the backlit visible built-in components does not meet the imposed requirements and thus aircraft cannot be completely fitted as required.
The thickness of the stone layer also cannot readily be reduced as desired in order to increase the backlit effect by the desired degree in a simple manner, since it must also be accordingly robust and break-resistant in order to meet the aeronautical crash requirements.
This problem of the sufficient combination of stability and aesthetics cannot be sufficiently solved by the known visible built-in components or the known aircraft comprising visible built-in components of this type.
The same problem arises when, as an alternative to a stone layer, partially transparent glass is intended to be used, in particular in the case of frosted glass. This may also be designed glass, which may be provided with patterns or decoration.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention is that of providing a visible built-in component for the interior fittings of an aircraft and a correspondingly fitted aircraft in which the problems described are reduced.